Mentor Blogs

I’ve never really been a fan of the color pink. If you look thru my childhood pictures you’ll find me wearing pink clothes (chosen by my lovely mom) but in every one of those pictures you also find my head slightly dipped down, defiantly looking into the camera and pouting. Not a happy bunny. As soon as I was old enough to make my own decisions regarding clothes, pink was banished from my wardrobe. … Read More

CFD, ROI, CAD-Embedded

Saturday lulled me into a false sense of security. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and for once in a long time I wasn’t out hiking.  I thought that’s fine… there’s always tomorrow. Then bam on Sunday the rain came … the monsoon kind of rain. It reminded me of a quick conversation I had with a German friend of mine over the summer.  He quipped that if rain were an Olympic event, GB would win Gold, … Read More

profitability, ROI, CFD

I live in a 3D world –3D simulation that is.  I remember when my work life went from 2D to 3D. I used to sit in a cubicle across from a software developer who specialized in graphics. He was a pesky lad. Whenever he’d get stuck on a particularly difficult piece of code he would throw missiles of all kinds at me – anything from crumpled pieces of paper to rubber bands and paper clips. I don’t know why … Read More

Design Engineer, FloEFD, CFD, Flowmaster, ROI

I’m not a fan of soccer (urm I mean football). I’m more of a Rugby gal myself. But on Saturday I along with 100+ fans played sardines in a small  pub and jostled for the best viewing position in front of one of the handful of TVs to watch the European Cup game.  The pub erupted when England scored the winning penalty shot. I had not seen so many grown men scream, dance and cry with joy at the same time. … Read More

Bronswerk Heat Transfer, CFD, Air-Cooled Cooler, ROI, Whizz-Wheel, fans, FloEFD

For the past few months I’ve been working behind the scenes on a very exciting project. I’ve been working with the good folks at the Aberdeen Group, a leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) industry consulting and research organization, to better understand the ROI of using simulation -- specifically CFD. Of course as a leading developer of CFD software we inherently understand the value of simulation … Read More

CFD, ROI, Concurrent CFD

I don’t particularly care for airports. You rush to get to them. You rush thru check-in and push your way thru never-ending queues to go thru security and get the prerequisite pre-boarding massage (I seem to get pat downs as I go thru security a lot and even though I gladly submit to them I’m starting to think that they are a new service that the airlines provide and thus deserve a proper marketing … Read More

CFD, electromagnetic, Avionics, ROI, FloEFD, interference

I’ve got the WIFI blues. Our American skiing buddies (whom we haven’t seen for three years) are making the great trek across the Atlantic ocean for a ski vacation in France. Among the usual list of requirements (good snow and nice range of terrains and activities) was “must have WIFI”. They were happy to compromise on transfer time, travel by car/air/sea/train and even schlep bags on public transport. … Read More

WiFi, CFD, electroincs, antenna, Solar, Thermal Management, ROI

If you are involved with semiconductor packaging design, then have I got news for you. We just announced the availability of FloTHERM IC – a web-based tool that delivers a high level of automation to design tasks associated with full-spectrum thermal characterization and validation. From what I understand, a typical semiconductor thermal team spends about 60% of their time on standard package thermal … Read More

Semiconductor, ROI, Smart Parts, CFD, BGA Substrates, Thermal Characterization, JEDEC, Package Design, Validation, FloTHERM IC, FloTHERM PACK

When budgets are tight most managers think about the same thing before they sign on the dotted line:  is this new tool going to help us get more done faster/better/smarter? If the answer is no then like most managers I don’t make the investment. Instead I focus on an activity that’s going to give me the best return on investment (ROI). That’s why last week I talked about time compression being … Read More

Time Compression, CFD, CAD-Embedded, Process Compression, ROI, Design Engineer, Mesh

Strictly speaking that’s mechanical engineers, and the information comes from Parametric Design Corporation (PTC), in their white paper Five Things You Should Know About 3D CAD Software. As PTC say - it’s a startling fact. Having had experience of keeping track of my own time to charge to different projects the figure really jumped out at me. I found that if you take away the time spent on internal … Read More

Design Flow, Fluid Dynamics, ROI, FloEFD, Return on Investment, CAE Market, Design Process, Flow Behavior

This is not controversial. But it is surprisingly often neglected, or lost sight of when organizations are considering refreshing their capabilities for systems interconnect tool integrations. The IT professionals involved in evaluating the vendor offerings know what they are looking for, the electrical engineers, the harness designers and wiring specialists have a well polished technical appreciation … Read More

ROI, RFI, CHS, RFQ, Evaluation

Requests for Quotation, Requests for Information come the way of the sales force in Mentor Graphics frequently. Prospective customers ask for testimonials, competence, references and proof of functionality. Following on from my last posting here is what I found.  My experience, my analysis of the data. These requirements in total over all documents I reviewed show a very even split.  Hundreds of individual … Read More

Purchasing, Process Model, Request for Quotation, ROI, RFI, CHS, Evaluation, Interoperability, RFQ, Electrical CAD

A while ago I heard something that made me tilt my head to the side… similar to that iconic image of Nipper, the Jack Russell terrier, listening to his master’s voice on a phonograph (I was going to post the image but international copyright rules are rather complicated. If you really want to see the image, then please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipper). Anyway, someone jokingly referred to … Read More

Fluid Flow, Design Engineer, CFD, ROI, FEA, Fluid Dynamics